Data validation is an important step when instrumenting any analytics product. Amplitude allows you to easily validate your event data via our User & Account Look-up feature, specifically through its User Search functionality.
This article explains how you can use the User Search functionality and the Event Stream of a user to validate your data.
Note: If you are using our JS SDK, we have an Instrumentation Explorer Chrome extension that can help you debug further (details here).
Table of Contents
- Prerequisite: Instrument Your Events
- Step 1: Find Yourself via User Look-up
- Step 2: Analyze the Event Stream
- Video Walkthrough
Prerequisite: Instrument Your Events
If you have not instrumented any events yet, then no data will be sent to our servers and thus no data would appear in our UI. We strongly recommend that you create a test app to test and validate your first event data. See our Quick Start Guide for more instructions and advice on getting started with Amplitude.
Step 1: Find Yourself via User Look-up
Once you have instrumented your events, the first step is to manually fire some of those events on your device. After you have manually fired the events:
- Navigate to New -> User & Account Look-up in Amplitude
- Use the search bar in the User Details section to search for yourself. You can search for yourself or your test device by your User ID, Device ID, Amplitude ID, or user property values.
Step 2: Analyze the Event Stream
After you find your user profile, scroll down to the Event Stream section. The Event Stream displays the entire event history of a user, grouped by session. The most recent activity appears at the top of the list, and you can expect events to populate the stream in ten seconds to one minute.
Clicking on an event will give you detailed information about it, including the user property and event property values at the time of that event.
Because the Event Stream is essentially updated in real-time (when you toggle on "Live event updates" mode), it can be utilized to assure new features are being logged correctly and to troubleshoot or debug instrumentation errors. For example, if you trigger an event only once but the Event Stream consistently displays two instances of the event, then there could be an instrumentation error.
Important Notes
- You can view additional information and the raw data of an event by clicking on "Raw" button at the top right corner of its table.
- Find a dictionary of Amplitude terms here.
